Last week, the 43-year-old former NHL enforcer buried his father, and this past weekend he was admitted to hospital for problems linked to concussions during his 12-year career.

Odjick showed worrisome signs of post-concussion syndrome on the weekend and was checked into the psychiatric wing of Pierre-Janet hospital in Gatineau, Que., across the river from Ottawa.

He was very agitated when he was transferred to Gatineau from the Kitigan-Zibi Algonquin community, where he grew up, about 90 minutes north of the nation’s capital.

Odjick began playing hockey in Kitigan-Zibi before he left at age 17 to play with Bob Hartley’s junior A Hawkesbury Hawks. He later carved out a career with the Canucks, Islanders, Flyers and Canadiens, amassing 64 goals, 73 assists and 2,567 penalty minutes.

He’s always claimed his multiple concussions had nothing to do with his countless on-ice fisticuffs.

Those claims are now highly doubtful.

Two years ago, I spoke with Odjick for my feature on the toll that hockey brawls have taken on longtime enforcer Chris Nilan. Odjick confessed then to struggling with post-traumatic symptoms.

“When you eat headshots, it’s hard on the brain,” he said at the time.

Odjick didn’t seem to be doing too badly when I reached him in the hospital late Monday evening.

“I’m here because of my concussion problems,” he confided. “Since I retired from hockey in 2002, I’ve spent 32 months in the hospital.”

Really? That’s nearly three years.

People who know and love Gino know he’s having cognitive problems. That much was clear to fans who saw his guest appearance last week on a national hockey TV show.

One website reported that Odjick was catatonic, as people with his condition usually are.

They can also have speech problems and behavioral disorders, even depression.

Fortunately, Odjick was taken in at the right time by people who want what’s best for him. Everybody loves Gino.

He was on the verge of being discharged from the hospital when we spoke.

But Odjick isn’t out of the woods yet. Case in point: the false statement he made to me during our interview.

As seen on TV the other day, Odjick is a deeply confused man in dire need of help.

His story was recently chronicled in a French-language documentary that aired last month featuring several former NHL enforcers who have seen their health take a serious dive, both during their careers and after they hung up the skates.

The NHL seems to have already forgotten that in 2011, three NHL career enforcers — Derek Boogaard, Rick Rypien, and Wade Belak — passed away tragically in a four-month period. Bob Probert died a year earlier after having a heart attack while boating on Lake St. Clair.

All four showed signs of chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE) and some form of mental illness.

Probert died at 45. Odjick turned 43 in September.

Odjick’s father, who earned his living assembling steel skyscrapers across North America, said days before his death that his son needed to get married before his 44th birthday.

But Gino has bigger fish to fry right now.

He has to take care of his health.

The NHL, and the teams that made money off of him, have a duty to help him.